Trying to sell? Bump up curb appeal

Touch-ups add value to home

July 26, 2009|By Cameron Huddleston, TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES

Walk across the street from your house, take a good look at your yard and ask yourself whether you're impressed -- or depressed.

A little cash can go a long way to improve your home's curb appeal. And if you will be listing your house in this painfully slow market, you can't afford not to spend some money and time on landscaping to distinguish it from others.

So we asked landscape professionals how homeowners could get the most bang for their landscaping buck within certain budgets: $100, $500, $1,000 and $2,000. They even threw in a few ideas to improve your yard without spending a cent.

$0

Clean up plant beds by removing weeds and overgrowth.

Prune shrubs -- but not into an unnatural ball or square shape.

Trim low-hanging tree branches that can create hazards.

$100

Create a welcoming entrance with one or two big pots filled with colorful plants. "A plant in a pot looks much bigger than when you put it in the ground," says landscape architect Sam Williamson, owner of Samuel H. Williamson Associates in Portland, Ore. Make a significant impact with a few 5-gallon trees for about $35 each. Smaller trees also tend to acclimate better.

Buy seeds, such as a wildflower mix, and cover much more ground than $100 worth of plants.

$500

Invest in pots. A couple of great architectural pots can make a statement at your entrance, says Tara Vincenta, founder of Artemis Landscape Architects in Brookfield, Conn.

Add rounded boxwoods or a seasonal planting of ornamental grasses, colorful annuals and trailing plants for an eye-catching display.

Add a bench or garden ornament, such as a trellis or birdbath, or a nice mailbox with some plantings at the base.

Spruce up foundation plantings with a border of long-blooming perennials. Vincenta says to use just two varieties (a dozen or more of each) for more impact and add fresh mulch for a high-end look.

$1,000

Redo an area of your garden or even a small backyard, Williamson says.

Hire a landscape designer or architect to create a plan you can install or develop a solution to a problem in your yard, says landscape architect Andy Wright of Landworks in Edwardsville, Kan.

Add several evergreen plants, trees and shrubs to punctuate an entrance, create year-round color or block a bad view.

Go green by creating a rain garden to capture and filter runoff from your roof.

Replace your lawn with meadow grasses, wildflowers or ground cover. The larger the portion of lawn you remove, the less time and money you'll spend on mowing and fertilizing grass, says landscape designer Barry Block, owner of Barry Block Landscape Design & Contracting in East Moriches, N.Y.

Install landscape lighting on the path to your front door.

Buy a small, free-standing water feature and add rocks, boulders and plantings to make it look natural.

$2,000

Improve your walkway. If you can't replace it, Vincenta recommends making repairs, adding a row of bricks or pavers along the edge or cutting out a section to create a pattern.

Expand your plant beds. Redo the straight line of plants at your house's foundation with a wider bed that has sweeping curves. Layer plantings with taller shrubs in the back and lower plantings and flowers in the front. Replace overgrown or dying plants.

Xeriscape. Replace your lawn with stones, boulders and drought-resistant plants if you live in an arid or fire-prone area.